The Development of the Human Hippocampal Formation Correlated with some Aspects of its Phylogenetic History

Abstract

The few extensive developmental studies on the human hippoeampal formation either have dealt primarily with early differentiation (Hines, 1922) or emphasized later development (Macchi, 1951). Consequently they have not completely demonstrated the manner in which the gyrus dentatus develops or its layers differentiate. Correlations between developmental stages of the parts of the human hippoeampal formation and its subdivisions in submammalian vertebrates are few (Rose, 1926; Tilney, 1938), although more general correlations are often made (e.g., Kuhlenbeck a. Domarus, 1920). Before attempting correlations, however, it is necessary to consider the terminology to be used and the most significant literature.

This publication covers only part of the paper presented at the symposium on Phylogenesis and Ontogenesis of the Forebrain. Due to limitations of space, the material on the correlations between the development of the olfactory bulbs and the gyrus dentatus will be published elsewhere (Humphrey, 1966).

This investigation was supported by a U.S. Public Health Service research career program award, NB-K6-16716, from the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness.

Aided by grant HD-00230, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health. The present paper is publication No. 43 in a series of physiological and morphological studies on human prenatal development. Most of the embryologie material on which this paper is based was prepared under the support of previous grants from The Penrose Fund of the American Philosophical Society, The Carnegie Corporation of New York, The University of Pittsburgh, The Sarah Mellon Scaife Foundation of Pittsburgh, and Grant B-394 from the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness, National Institutes of Health.